Motivation

The Study Group has the ability to approve new or revised Questions, which enables continuous change of its programme of work. Accordingly, a home is needed for new work proposals when they are not directly related to Questions already under study. Similarly, Question 1/12 can accommodate new contributions which have no associated Question, as well as necessary actions that should be taken on existing recommendations with no associated Question or Rapporteur.

The widespread expansion of IP-based services such as IPTV, the implementation of NGN and the rapid change from a fixed circuit-based network infrastructure to one that is mobile and packet-based, have created many performance and service quality issues. Additionally, even when the end-to-end path is all-IP, there are still many performance issues if demanding applications are to be satisfactorily supported. This Question is intended to provide cross-ITU coordination for the many aspects of Quality-of-Service (QoS) and to foster consistency among ITU-T Study Groups, as well as from other related bodies such as the IETF, 3GPP so as to advance the interoperability of any QoS solutions. This coordination should be conducted by Study Group 12 as the Lead Study Group on QoS/QoE.

These roles will be played in part 1 "Work Programme and QoS/QoE Lead Study Group" of this Question.

Secondly this Question also covers the recommendations for definitions (that need to be currently updated to take into account the new concepts, technologies) to give precise definitions of the new concepts developed in the other Study Group Questions.

Increasingly, new actors in the fields of telecommunications need to understand the concepts and the recommendations on QoS, telephonometry, transmission quality, etc. To help members and inform on the work done in the Study Group, it would be useful to create tutorials, reference implementations, FAQ, etc., to be posted on the SG website. This activity should be completed by updating the handbooks and creating guides. This role will be played in part 2 "Definitions, Handbooks, Guides, Tutorials" of this Question.

Thirdly, covered by part 3 of this Question, and in conjunction with the other activities, Study Group 12 has decided to work actively in order to encourage and assist participants from developing countries. In particular, SG12 Regional Group for Africa has been created, in order to bridge the standardization gap in the area of performance, QoS and QoE.

Based on the experience gained in the meeting of SG 12 held in Dakar, Senegal, from 22 to 26 October 2001, QoS is a big challenge for developing countries and remains mainly linked to the availability of telecommunications services whatever the installed technology.

Three topics were identified as priorities and could be extended to all developing countries:

1-E-model; 2-voice terminals; 3-Quality of Service Handbook/guides.

The following major Recommendations/Handbooks, in force at the time of approval of this Question, fall under its responsibility:

Recommendations P.10/G.100, P.800.1, G.1000, Handbook on Telephonometry.

Question

This Question complements the other Questions of SG 12.

Part 1: Work programme and QoS/QoE Lead Study Group

• When considering new topics for the SG, before beginning any action, the contributions are addressed and discussed under this Question.
• What are the new or updated Questions that need to be worked on in the SG?
• What are the results of workshops, TSB initiatives, actions of other SGs or SDOs that need to be considered under the Study Group work programme?
• Study items to be considered include, but are not limited to:
  • Co-ordination of the studies carried out within ITU-T on QoS.
  • Harmonisation among the various recommendations and standards on QoS/QoE.
  • Co-ordination of critical IP-related QoS issues across the industry, in cooperation with bodies such as the IETF, as appropriate.

Part 2: Definitions, handbooks, guides, tutorials

• What are the new or revised definitions that need to be included in Recommendation P.10/G.100?
• What are the new sections to be written to update the handbooks? How could we ensure greater visibility and better use of these materials?
• What kind of materials (FAQ, reference implementations, tutorial etc.) could be made available on the SG website?
• What guides would be needed to help the users to implement the new recommendations?

Part 3: Bridging the standardization gap and SG12 Regional Group

• What are the needs expressed by the SG12 Regional Group to solve the issues raised on QoS and QoE?
• What could be the relevant tools to solve these issues? How could ITU-T implement them?
• What inputs from SG12 Regional Group could be implemented in new and revised Recommendations?

Tasks

Tasks include, but are not limited to:

For Part 1:

• to identify the needs of the rapidly changing telecommunications marketplace best addressed by the programme of work of Study Group 12, and to create in study Group 12 new Questions or to update Questions.
• to participate, in collaboration with other SGs or standardization bodies, in the steering committees of workshops.
• To ensure a coordination of QoS/QoE-related activities in the ITU-T (ongoing), with the focus on identifying gaps in QoS/QoE standardization that present interoperability obstacles to achieving end-to-end QoS.
• to ensure a coordination among various standards activities on QoS/QoE and collaboration with other standards bodies (ongoing), with an emphasis on interoperability.
• to make recommendations for QoS/QoE related issues to TSAG and the TSB, as needed.
• to maintain and revise Recommendation G.1000.

For Part 2:

• to drive actions to update existing recommendations, or to create new recommendations on definitions.
• to update or produce handbooks, guides, tutorials for the benefit of the users of the recommendations.
• to create tools that could help non-experts to understand and implement the new recommendations. Some of these tools should be implemented on the SG website.

For Part 3:

• The main activity is to provide a report from SG12 Regional Group for Africa, and to provide inputs for the other Questions in ITU-T SG12 in order to solve issues raised by the SG12 Regional Group.
• It could also be involved in the creation of other SG12 Regional Groups, when needed.

An up-to-date status of work under this Question is contained in the SG 12 Work Programme http://1f8a81b9b0707b63-19211.webchannel-proxy.scarabresearch.com/ITU-T/workprog/wp_search.aspx?isn_sp=545&isn_sg=551

Relationships (for the 3 parts of the Question)

Recommendations: All Recommendations under the responsibility of SG 12, E.800

Handbooks: Handbook on STP, Handbook on QoS

Questions: Any Question in the ITU-T that has QoS/QoE aspects

Study Groups: All ITU-T Study Groups with activities related to QoS

Standardization bodies: ETSI, IETF, ATIS, TIA, IEEE, 3GPP, MEF, APSC-TELEMOV, SCTE